“ad fontes!”
Ireland, 1891—used in negative contexts to denote rejection, especially in ‘not for all the tea in China’, meaning ‘not in any circumstances’—refers to China as a major producer of tea, and to tea as a commodity of great value
Read MoreUK—1824: a slaughterhouse where old or injured horses are slaughtered and their bodies processed—1832: a notional place where ends up someone or something that is no longer useful or successful
Read MoreUK, 1979—to sell a valuable resource or asset for immediate advantage—in particular: to dispose of a nation’s assets for financial gain—‘family silver’: something considered to be of great value, materially or otherwise
Read MoreUSA, 1831—very rare—since the late 17th century, the expression ‘hen’s teeth’ has been used as a type of something which is extremely rare, unattainable or non-existent
Read Morehumorous variant of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’—USA, 1929—refers to the phrase ‘the law of the Medes and Persians’, denoting something which cannot be altered
Read Morehumorous variant of ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’—USA, 1938—used in particular to play on the surnames ‘Mead’ and ‘Meade’
Read MoreAustralia & New Zealand, early 1970s—‘Pommy’: a British immigrant to Australia or New Zealand; a British (especially an English) person—‘-bashing’: the activity of abusing or attacking the people mentioned just because they belong to a particular group or community
Read MoreAustralia, 1962—an immigrant from Britain who complains about Australia—‘Pommy’: apparently a shortening of ‘pomegranate’, used to designate an immigrant from Britain
Read MoreAustralia & UK—denotes physical ugliness; also used of temporary states such as tiredness, hangover, anger, etc. (Australia, 1946)—also denotes rapidity (Australia, 1947)
Read MoreAustralia, 1982—denotes physical ugliness
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word histories 